Florida Hull Cleaner Killed On The Job

[Akimbo]

The ship I work on has a 36" thruster prop and a 6" grate. You'd have a hard time getting through the grate to the thruster prop...

No doubt true, but I bet it would hurt. Sea chest grates are much smaller but divers have been sucked up against them, lost their FFM (w/o comms), and drown.

I have seen hull cleaners that don't think twice about getting between a dock and a 60' hull when the bumpers were only 12" in diameter. I am "guessing" that a 175' boat with a single bow thruster would be 18-24" in diameter.

 

[Akimbo]

Is there any kind of lock out/tag out procedure for hull cleaners?

Locking and tagging are standard procedures with licensed and insured commercial diving contractors... but there aren't very many working outside of major harbors with large commercial vessels.

 

[seeker242]

I am "guessing" that a 175' boat with a single bow thruster would be 18-24" in diameter.

It's a 50m Westport and the standard size for them is 24".

 

[Akimbo]

It's a 50m Westport and the standard size for them is 24".

It's surprising that anything was left besides the end of the hose. I'm guessing that the poor diver wasn't wearing a bailout bottle or the boat would have a hole blown in her bow.

It is sad that these lessons have to be relearned so many times, especially when the "label and lock" procedure is so obvious and virtually universal. I never worked in ship's husbandry as a Navy diver but I heard that armed Marines would sometimes stand guard on the bridge and in engineering spaces with yard birds aboard in foreign ports.

@Wookie: Do you have any idea if this is USCG, local police, and/or OSHA jurisdiction?

 

[Zeagle Eagle]

The ship I work on has a 36" thruster prop and a 6" grate. You'd have a hard time getting through the grate to the thruster prop. I am the chief, and a contract hull cleaner, so I run my own tagouts. I fight with the assistant engineers over adequacy of diver tagouts, they don't want to tag the thruster, or they don't want to tag the steering hydraulics, or they don't want to tag the fire pump. But as the chief and diver, I tend to get my way.

I do the same thing on airplanes. Gear doors have killed a few people. I personally go and put a tag on the hydraulic switches if I know I am going to be in the wheel wells. Standard protocol is before we (the pilots) turn on the hydraulics (when you are not starting), ground clearance must be obtained.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[Wookie]

It's surprising that anything was left besides the end of the hose. I'm guessing that the poor diver wasn't wearing a bailout bottle or the boat would have a hole blown in her bow.

It is sad that these lessons have to be relearned so many times, especially when the "label and lock" procedure is so obvious and virtually universal. I never worked in ship's husbandry as a Navy diver but I heard that armed Marines would sometimes stand guard on the bridge and in engineering spaces with yard birds aboard in foreign ports.

@Wookie: Do you have any idea if this is USCG, local police, and/or OSHA jurisdiction?

Certainly OSHA. In Florida the Sheriff has jurisdiction on county waters, rarely city, and not USCG. They only cover divers in non-state waters.

 

[tilikum]

Wookie, do you have actual physical locks to prevent any kind of tampering with tag outs?

 

[Wookie]

Have them, never used them. I may rethink. Last week I delivered an oil cooler to the machine shop in Jax. Got to the machine shop and there was a danger tag on the cooler vent bigger than day. Facepalm.

 

[seeker242]

Do you have any idea if this is USCG, local police, and/or OSHA jurisdiction?

I'm sure ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) will be involved if that's the vessels class society, which it probably is because it's a US flag.

 

[KeithG]

Wookie, do you have actual physical locks to prevent any kind of tampering with tag outs?

When I worked in a steel mill every electrical breaker had a physical lockout mount on it. Any time maintenance was being performed on equipment a personal pad lock was attached to the circuit breaker to prevent it from being turned on. Only the person who put the lock on had a key for it.